WEI-SHIUAN HUANG

Performer, Film Composer, Music Editor

The start of my music journey with Percussion

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    I have been classically trained performer since I was four. From the beginning of my music journey, piano was my first instrument, I continued learning classical piano for 15 years. I love various music style, although I only learned piano, I attempted to build up more skills to be a professional musician. When I was freshman in high school; a well-known percussion group in Taiwan- Ju Percussion Group inspired me. Because of the charm of their performance, I changed my principle instrument from Piano to Percussion. During that period, I went to a lot of master classes for percussion to build my experience and technique of the instrument that I love. Besides, there are a lot of people who can play the piano very well.

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The development of my music path

    I studied Marimba as my principle at Berklee College of Music. After I discovered that jazz style of music can also be used in the mallet percussion like marimba or vibraphone. My music journey gradually expanded into another path; I spent a lot of time focusing on the freestyle jazz, rather than classical reading. For instance, I began learning jazz style improvisation with vibraphone. I adored a professor who plays jazz vibraphone magnificently. His skills and his passion when performing influenced me to immerse myself in the practice room daily to memorize jazz scale and harmony, dreaming one day I could be just like him. Through practice, I figure I have the talent to improvise not only with classical music but with jazz music. This will widen my horizon in the future. I find that I can really adapt quickly to new music styles.

    In addition, I have loved to watch variety of movies. I am most attracted to Disney since my childhood. Its background music and the use of instrumental arrangement, harmony, phrasing etc. Hence, Disney soundtracks are top picks in my music playlist. Gradually, I realized music plays an important role in film production. Without encouraging music, the audience would not capture the excitement shown in the movie. Therefore, I decided Film Scoring as my major at Berklee College of Music.

    Through countless practices and performances, I have been gaining the knowledge of composition, arranging, orchestrating, mixing. I realized that the secret of film music is miraculous, it affects the audience’s mood during the movie. Moreover, through hands-on experience with professionals and other students, I understand that making music influential is very challenging. It takes a long process to be accustomed to apply specific intellectual techniques while doing composition. However, I am looking forward to taking up this challenging path in the study of film scoring.

    I believe having the knowledge of several different instruments would help enhance my future career in film scoring. I have faith that my experience at Berklee will put myself in the mill, and I will be more capable to express my music efficiently, so that I can go forward into my musical journey.